It is known that protective toecaps for safety shoes are currently commercially available which, in most cases, are made of hardened steel with a thickness of approximately 1.6–1.7 mm. Said toecaps are produced by forming from a plate and therefore necessarily have a substantially constant thickness and require protective coating.
Steel toecaps have, for an average shoe size, a weight of approximately 180–190 g per pair.
The typical drawbacks of these toecaps arise mainly from their weight and from the fact that they can be subject to corrosion; they also have an is intense magnetism.
In order to try to solve the problems linked to steel toecaps, toecaps made of composite material, such as fiberglass-reinforced plastics with reinforcing elements, have already been provided; they have the advantage of a significant weight reduction with respect to steel toecaps and of total lack of magnetism and electrical conductivity, but on the other hand they have a very high cost and considerable aesthetic problems on the shoe, owing to the considerable thickness required in order to pass the tests prescribed by the standards.
Another problem, moreover, arises from the fact that it is necessary to modify the molds used by safety shoe manufacturing industries so as to allow to accommodate said toecap. Moreover, the composite material is significantly prone to deterioration over time.